Credentialing has long been treated as a routine administrative task. But in today’s pharmacy landscape defined by thin staffing margins and growing clinical responsibilities, it has become a critical weak point.
When pharmacists are ready to work but remain stuck in credentialing, the impact is immediate and costly; they can’t deliver immunizations or support patients managing chronic disease. The average wait time for credentialing now stretches 90 to 120 days, and translates into as much as $69,462 in lost revenue per pharmacist, according to federal wage estimates.
But this isn’t just about delayed paychecks. Credentialing bottlenecks quietly destabilize the entire care model. Unlike short-term staffing gaps, these losses are slow and structural. One mismatched record can stall service delivery for months and sideline qualified clinicians while pushing pharmacies to the brink.
These consequences are especially steep for high-volume and rural sites. Delays cut into margins and cascade into growing wait times and dropping team morale. As Pie Health describes it, credentialing has become a “silent revenue leak”, a vulnerability hiding within the system until the damage is already done.
Nowhere is this more visible than in smaller, independent pharmacies. With limited admin bandwidth, these sites often have pharmacists on standby who are fully trained and willing to work, but locked out of the system. What should be a simple clearance process becomes a gatekeeping mechanism that blocks care.
This is the gap ShiftRx is built to close.
ShiftRx approaches credentialing delays as operational problems with practical solutions. When a pharmacy hits a backlog, ShiftRx enables providers to immediately post open shifts and bring in credentialed clinicians. These are licensed professionals who can immunize and manage patients from the moment they arrive.
This flexibility is becoming the standard for resilient pharmacy operations. ShiftRx helps organizations navigate an imperfect system without sacrificing care delivery by blending agile staffing with credentialing intelligence. We ensure pharmacies don’t have to choose between access and compliance while waiting for a new hire to clear approval or covering critical gaps caused by shifting patient demand.
As Andre Harvin, Executive Director of Pharmacy at Cone Health, puts it:
“The future of pharmacists will depend on how we choose to change our profession and what we want it to look like.”
ShiftRx helps ensure the future of pharmacy is defined by the care pharmacists are trained to deliver and the access patients deserve.
Sources:
The Financial Impact of Credentialing Delays
Provider Credentialing Delays Cost Physicians Thousands 2025
Physicians lose the most from provider credentialing delays